My name is Brendan Phillips, and I am the youngest son of U. Utah Phillips. I am asking for funds to restore my Fathers 120-year-old caboose. With funds secured to complete the restoration, the caboose will become the site of the Utah Phillips Library and Study. The library will contain books, artifacts and materials collected by Utah over his decades long career. It will be a place that artists, poets, train riders and activists can come to access the materials as artists in residence and use the materials to inspire, study and create new works to add to the long memory.

The caboose will need significant restoration and rehabilitation for it to become a library. Support beams that hold up the roof and cupola are rotted and failing, windows and doors need to be replaced. The roof also needs additional work to ensure that the caboose can withstand the harsh wind, rain, and snow of Weed California.

When complete, the library will become an integral part of the Black Butte Center for Railroad Culture (BBCRC.org). It will host events, an artists in residence program and support the ongoing operations and mission of the BBCRC, its caretakers, and supporters.

Above: 1 year old Brendan visits the caboose in Vermont

Brendan arrives to see the caboose has a new addition